


pretty

by bettersounds (thebadguyswin)



Category: Twenty One Pilots
Genre: M/M, That's it that's the plot, little tw for homophobic language, tyler wears make-up and josh is okay with that
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-08
Updated: 2016-11-08
Packaged: 2018-08-29 18:57:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,333
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8501503
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thebadguyswin/pseuds/bettersounds
Summary: Tyler is six when he finds his mother's jewelry box.Tyler is ten when he tries his first lip gloss.Tyler is sixteen when he meets Josh Dun.





	

**Author's Note:**

> ya boy is BACK with little characterisation and practically no plot but an insatiable need for make-up-wearing Tyler and procrastination

Tyler is six when he finds his mother’s jewelry box. He’s with his friend, Jenna, on a playdate organised by their parents.

He runs his hands over the twinkling necklaces and smooth pearls, his lips parted in awe.

“Try some on.” Jenna giggles, handing him a string of pearls. He winds them around his neck and loops bangles over his wrists while Jenna slips on rings and ear studs.

“I want to try.” Tyler protests, looking at her ears enviously.

“You don’t have pierced ears.”

Tyler pouts.

Jenna and Tyler trot downstairs, snickering and eager to show off their décor.

“How pretty you look, Jenna!” Tyler’s mother gushes. “Oh, Tyler. How silly you are.” Kelly sighs and unwinds the pearl necklace and wrestles Tyler out of the bracelets.

Tyler pouts again. He wants to be pretty.

* * *

Tyler is ten when he sees Jenna and Debby, sitting cross legged on the floor of Jenna’s bedroom, playing around with lip gloss from a cheap make up set one of them got for Christmas.

“This one smells like watermelon!” Debby grins, sniffing at a tube of peachy pink goo with silver glitter suspended in it.

“Ooh!” Jenna pulls the tube out of Debby’s hand to smell it herself.

Debby’s lips are sticky and shiny from the gloss, strings appearing between them when she smiles or speaks. Jenna’s eye lids are blue and her cheeks are dotted with two circles of rosy pink blush.

Tyler pouts. “I want to try.”

Jenna rolls her eyes. “You’re a boy, Tyler. Boys don’t wear make-up.”

Debby sees Tyler’s eyes darken and well up. “Here.” She says quickly, tossing him a red tube from the kit. “I don’t much like red lips. I won’t use this gloss.”

Tyler’s face brightens immediately as the tube smacks off his knee. He stands up, going to Jenna’s mirror, and smears the gloss on his lips. Not as much as Debby did, so he doesn’t get the strings of gloss between his lips, but enough to make his already plump lips look plumper, and shiny too.

Tyler smiles. He looks pretty.

* * *

Tyler is fourteen when he sees his first picture of a man wearing make-up. It’s in a magazine. The man has orange hair, spiked up, and his face is pale and his eye lids are blue and lined. Tyler’s eyes are wide as he slides the magazine onto the table in front of his mother.

“Mom, who’s this?” He points at the picture.

“Hm?” Kelly looks up from her newspaper. “Oh, that’s David Bowie, sweetie. He’s a singer.”

Tyler frowns. “He’s wearing make-up.”

“Yes, sweetie. It was a style. Lots of people did back then.”

“I thought you said boys don’t wear make-up.”

“Normal boys don’t, Tyler.”

Tyler pouts. He takes the magazine off the table and goes upstairs to his room. He shuts his bedroom door, locking it, and slides a box out from under his bed. He takes the lid off, and looks sadly at the few boxes and tubes rolling around at the bottom.

Jenna had been confused when Tyler had first stuffed some dollar bills into her hand outside the drugstore and begged her to get some things for him. But they’d known each other for so long, and Jenna loved Tyler a lot, so she obliged. She saw how happy Debby’s lip gloss had made him.

Debby’s lip gloss lay in that box still, too old to ever wear again but Tyler’s too sentimental to ever throw it out. He takes out a small palette of eyeshadows in shades of blue and green, and a small pink blush, and a peachy lip gloss. He looks at the photo of David Bowie, then at his reflection in his mirror, then back again.

He tries ever so carefully to map out the eyeshadow just like David Bowie, and adds the blush high up on his cheekbones like David Bowie, and dabs a little of the lip gloss on. David Bowie isn’t wearing anything on his lips, but he wants to anyway.

But Tyler doesn’t have a black eyeliner, and his skin is too tanned to be the same pale shade.

But Tyler still smiles at his reflection. He looks pretty.

* * *

Tyler is sixteen when he sees boys wearing eye liner to school. They wear black jeans and loose fitting shirts and fingerless gloves and heavy boots.

They don’t carefully line their eyes like Tyler does. They smudge the pencil under their eyes and some even drag it down their face, like tears. Tyler doesn’t like it.

Tyler likes precision. And neatness. Tyler sits in his room after school for hours at a time, blending and shading and lining and contouring. He watches videos on the internet on how to best apply make-up. Tyler doesn’t have nearly as much stuff as the people in the videos, but he’s creative and does his best.

Jenna continues to buy him supplies in secret, but now Debby knows too. Debby is much more interested in make-up, and goes home with him after school sometimes, bringing her own stash and experimenting on Tyler.

“You have lovely eyelashes.” She whispers as she coats them in mascara. This makes Tyler smile.

Tyler is paired up with one of the smudgy-eye-liner-wearing boys for a science project, and he’s nervous. This boy has red hair and rips in the knees of his jeans, and huffs as he moves seats to sit down next to Tyler.

“M’Josh.” He mumbles, arms folded and eyes cast down.

“Tyler.” He swallows

He goes home with Tyler that day, to make a start on their project.

They sit cross-legged on Tyler’s bedroom floor. Josh writes as Tyler talks. It isn’t as bad as Tyler feared, as Josh is clever and willing to put the work into their project.

Then Josh drops his pen and it rolls under Tyler’s bed. Tyler stiffens as it clinks against something. A tube of lipstick is next to Josh’s pen, left abandoned after Tyler had hurriedly cleared his things away and taken off Debby’s work before his dinner the previous evening.

Josh frowns and picks it up. Tyler’s face is red and his breathing is fast, too fast.

“This yours?” Josh pops the lid off and twists the tube, grinning at the stick of fuchsia.

“I…I…” Tyler stammers.

“Suits your skin tone.” Josh holds it against Tyler’s skin. “My mom’s a make-up artist. Some of it rubs off on you.”

Tyler avoids eye contact and reaches under his bed, pulling out the box. It rattles as it moves, having filled up steadily over the years. He pops the lid off and lets Josh peer in.

“All this for you?”

Tyler nods.

Josh rakes through the tubes and boxes and palettes. He nods approvingly. “Not a bad collection. You wear this?”

Tyler shrugs. “Not outside. But yes.”

Josh raises his eyebrows. “You any good?”

Tyler shrugs again.

“Next time, we’ll go to my house. You can bring some stuff and my mom can show you some tricks.”

Tyler smiles. “Sounds cool.”

Tyler does just that. He takes a small carrier bag of his favourites into school the next day, hiding them deep in his rucksack, then goes with Josh to his house after classes.

Josh’s mom insists he call her Laura. She’s been at work all day, but when she sees the small boy blushing in her kitchen with his little bag of make-up, she coos and pats a chair by the kitchen table.

“You have some lovely stuff.” She smiles as she picks up the small eyeshadow palettes and glosses. “Quite cheap, but you’ve got an eye for colour. All these go so well with your skintone and eye colour.”

“I watch a lot on youtube.” Tyler chews his lip. “I’m not the best, but I learnt a thing or too.”

Laura nods encouragingly. “I can see that.”

She spends an hour doing Tyler’s make up, all three of them chatting and smiling. Josh makes them cups of coffee and toasts pop tarts.

By the end of the hour, Tyler boasts a purple smoky eye, winged liner, and rose tinted lips. Highlight gleams on his sculpted cheeks. Laura even smarted up his usually unruly brows. He admires himself in the mirror.

“How did you match my foundation so well?” Tyler squees. “All of the ones Jenna gets me end up off.”

“You need to try them before you buy.” Laura sighs.

Tyler shakes his head. “Can’t be seen buying make up.” He fiddles with his thumbs.

Laura wants to ask why, to grab his shoulders and tell him there’s not a make-up counter in the world that couldn’t match him, but she bites her lip. He’s a young boy, anxious and scared and he needs to learn for himself. He needs to accept himself before he’d let the world accept him.

So instead, she pulls out the bottle of foundation she used on him. “My treat.” She smiles.

Tyler is shocked, and so is Josh. Josh knows his mother uses high-quality stuff.

“I can’t.” Tyler stutters. “It’s your supply… You need it…”

Laura shakes her head. “You’re not a common shade, Tyler. I’ve barely used this one. Besides, I can restock.”

Tyler blushes, even though it can’t be seen under the foundation, and slips it into his bag with his other make-up.

Tyler and Josh work on their project for the rest of the night, eating macaroni cheese cooked by Laura, and Tyler stealing glances at himself in the mirror at every opportunity. Josh needs to stop himself staring too. His mother is truly a great make-up artist.

Then it’s time for Tyler to go home. He sadly washes his face in Josh’s bathroom, wiping away the smoky eye and lipstick and foundation.

He stands on Josh’s doorstep and sadly waves goodbye to Laura and Josh, and they wave back. Josh is smiling, and blushing.

Even without make-up, he still thinks Tyler looks pretty.

* * *

Tyler is nineteen when his mother finds his box of make-up and collection of skirts and blouses.

“Do you have a girl who sneaks in here?” She wails, holding up a black tube mini skirt.

“No, mom. I…”

Her eyes widen with realisation. “Are you a faggot?” She cries, throwing the skirt to the ground and throwing her hands in the air.

“Mom!” Tyler is crying. He doesn’t like shouting and he doesn’t like being found out.

“I can’t believe my own son…” Kelly stomps out of his room. Tyler doesn’t know where she goes. He doesn’t care.

He grabs a bag and stuffs clothes in. His skirts, his tops, his jeans, his make-up, as much of it he can fit. He doesn’t say goodbye to his mother or father or siblings as he swings his bag over his shoulder and leaves the house.

He goes to Josh’s. His best friend. And his best friend’s mother, who has been more of a support to him than anyone in his own family for the past three years.

He texts Jenna, telling her he’ll be at Josh’s if she needs him. He texts Debby too, even though she moved out of the state two years ago. But she needs to know not to phone his house.

Josh frowns at Tyler when he answers the door, running a hand through his blue hair when he spies the bag and tear tracks down Tyler’s face. He steps aside and lets Tyler in.

Laura understands and makes up the guest bedroom for Tyler. It’s a small room, but it has a bed and a wardrobe and a dressing table, and it’s enough.

“I can pay rent.” Tyler stands by the bedroom door as Laura pulls on a fitted sheet over the mattress. “I have a job. It’s at a 7/11 but I can pay rent.”

Laura nods. “That’s good of you, Tyler. Josh pays out of his wages from the record store too.”

Josh smiles awkwardly from the hall. “Not as much as actual rent costs, but mom’s letting me save enough to pay a deposit on a place, eventually.”

“We could save together.” Tyler says quickly, then almost regrets it. “I mean… I just thought… We would save faster together…”

“No, you’re right.” Josh smiles genuinely this time. “Not a bad idea, Joseph.”

Tyler blushes.

Laura helps Tyler get a job at a make-up counter at a department store. She teaches him the basics, and how to do well in the interview, but Tyler’s passion for make-up is what sways it.

Tyler is growing happier and more confident. He starts out subtle, wearing a light foundation and mascara and lip balm and grooming his brows. Customers smile at him and ask him about products and colour selection. Tyler smiles back and finds himself able to answer almost all of their questions, and researches anything he finds he doesn’t know once he’s back home.

He starts doing demonstrations on customers, and everyone including his employers are impressed by his technical ability.

“Why don’t you wear more make-up? You’re so good at it.” His co-worker, Breezy, asks.

Tyler shrugs. “I’d get funny looks.”

“With wings as sharp as that,” she circles his work on a customer’s eyelid, “the only looks you’d be getting are ones of admiration, sweetie.”

Tyler starts wearing more make-up to work. His dresser becomes scattered with products every morning as he quickly lines his eyes and blends his contour. He works out a quick routine that he can change up daily, but that he can complete in twenty minutes. Laura buys him a desk organiser to keep everything neat, and Tyler looks after his make-up collection as if it were made of solid gold.

Tyler sees his mother in the department store sometimes. She either doesn’t recognise him or she ignores him. Either way, she never visits his counter.

Josh visits Tyler at work almost every day, bringing him lunch during his break. Tyler slips off his apron, the pockets stuffed with brushes, and takes Josh into the break room to eat with him.

They laugh and smile and joke as they eat, Josh knowing how to clean Tyler’s mouth when food gets caught in his lip gloss without smearing the rest of his make-up. Josh starts saying goodbye by kissing Tyler on the cheek. This makes Tyler blush, but he doesn’t mind.

* * *

Tyler is a month away from turning twenty when he and Josh save up enough for a deposit on an apartment.

He and Josh look for places, and find a reasonably priced two bedroom apartment in a safe area of town.

“We can afford that on our wages.” Josh prods the computer screen. “Provided you cut back on the make-up a little.”

Tyler pouts. “And if you cut back on the records.”

“Deal.” Josh grins and presses a kiss to the top of Tyler’s head.

They book a flat viewing, and after checking behind the curtains for mould and asking the neighbours what the block is like, they settle on it. They pay the deposit and agree to move in two weeks later.

Josh and Tyler lie on Tyler’s bed on their last night in Laura’s house. They just ate a beautiful meal, cooked by Laura, as a farewell treat.

“Are you nervous? To live alone?” Tyler whispers.

“We won’t be alone. We got each other.” Josh smiles and kisses the tip of Tyler’s nose. He’s thankful Tyler isn’t wearing make-up so he doesn’t risk smudging anything.

“What are we?” Tyler’s heart beats fast. He doesn’t want to screw everything up, not right before he’s due to move in to an apartment with Josh. But he can’t hold back.

“What d’you mean?” Josh frowns.

Tyler shakes his head. “Never mind.”

“No, go on.”

Tyler looks into Josh’s brownish-greenish eyes. “I feel safe with you.” Tyler confesses. “You never judged me. Even when I was sixteen and couldn’t get my eyeliner even for the life of me.”

Josh shrugs. “Never felt there was anything to judge. Especially not when you were the prettiest thing I’d ever seen. Still are, really.”

Tyler smiles. “Thanks.”

Josh smiles too. “No problem.”

Tyler leans up to press a kiss to Josh’s lips. He’s never done that before. Josh freezes for a second, surprised by Tyler’s actions, but then relaxes against his mouth.

“Thanks.” Josh blinks.

Tyler smirks. "No problem."

 

* * *

Tyler is a day away from turning twenty-one, and he has been dating Josh Dun for fifty-four weeks, when he finds the definition for the word “demi-boy” on the internet.

His eyes are wide as he reads, and he runs into the living room with his laptop in his hands to wear Josh is sitting on the couch.

“Josh, look.” He shows him the webpage.

Josh reads slowly, squinting at the bright screen. “Uh-huh?” Josh’s jaw is slack as he looks up Tyler. “What about it?”

“It’s… I think it’s me…”

“Oh.” Josh looks back at the screen and rereads it. “Cool.” He smiles. “You okay with ‘he’ or you want somethin’ else?”

Tyler pauses, pursing his lips. “He is fine.” He says finally.

Josh nods. “Cool."

"You don't mind?"

Josh frowns. "Why would I? The description does fit you pretty well, and if this is what makes you happy, then I'm happy."

Tyler hides his face behind his hands and giggles. "Okay."

Josh smiles. "You excited for your birthday tomorrow?”

Tyler plops onto the couch and tucks his legs underneath him, nuzzling into Josh’s side. “Yep.” He squeaks.

Tyler and Josh spend the evening watching children’s cartoons and eating pizza. Tyler falls asleep ridiculously early, so Josh scoops him up and carries them to the room they share. The other room was Tyler’s but his bed has long since been neglected, and now it is used mainly to store clothes and Tyler’s extensive make-up collection.

When Tyler wakes up, he is greeted by Josh, standing at the foot of their bed, a tray of waffles in his hands and a gift bag dangling from his fingers.

“Happy birthday, Tyler.” He laughs as Tyler sits bolt upright and giggles.

Josh sets the waffles down on the nightstand, and slides into bed next to Tyler, knowing he won’t eat until he’s seen his presents.

The wrapping is pulled off his first present. “Oooooh.” Tyler turns the expensive make-up palette over in his hands. “Josh, this is too much. This is such a high-end brand…” He breathes.

Josh smiles. “Good thing I got the promotion at work.”

Tyler’s eyes are wide. “Manager? Josh, no way!” He wraps his arms around Josh’s neck. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“It only happened last week. Plus this way, by not telling you, I get to surprise you with expensive make up.”

Tyler laughs and kisses Josh, overwhelmed by his boyfriend’s generosity.

A book on make-up techniques throughout the 20th century, a t-shirt featuring Tyler’s favourite cartoon character, a coconut scented candle, and a choker necklace a tiny gold peach charm make up Tyler’s other presents. Tyler loves them all, and he loves Josh even more for knowing him so well.

There’s only one present left. Tyler pulls it out the bag. It’s flat, and the size of a wad of A4 paper. Feels like a wad of A4 paper too. Tyler frowns and unwraps it.

“Which factor has the most impact upon the growth of cress?” Tyler reads the front cover of a booklet. His eyes widen. “Our science project?”

Josh blushes and nods.

“You kept it? All these years?” Tyler feels tears brim in his eyes.

“Mom was clearing out my old room a few weeks ago. I thought you might want this little reminder of how we met.”

Tyler cackles and hugs it close to his chest. “You’re so silly, I love you.” His throat tightens up. He’s never said that before.

Josh grins. It’s the biggest grin Tyler’s ever seen on Josh. “I love you too.”

Tyler grins and kisses Josh and nestles against him, still giggling.

Tyler is happy.

**Author's Note:**

> @ my regulars I s2g I'll update heading south at some point okay im sorry I have neglected my son


End file.
